Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-10-23-Speech-2-144"
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"en.20011023.7.2-144"2
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"Mr President, the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community was signed in 1952, and was to run for fifty years. It comes to an end next summer and there is no intention to extend it. We are therefore to debate the last ECSC budget, now, with expenditure to cover the period up until 23 July of next year. Thereafter its assets, estimated to be worth EUR 1.1 billion, are to be transferred to the EU’s general budget, to be invested safely and profitably. Earnings from the assets are to be used for funding research in the coal and steel industries. It has been estimated that around EUR 45 million in earnings per annum will be available for these purposes.
The ECSC has not attracted payments for many years. Its expenditure has mainly been financed out of a reserve intended for funding under the operating budget. The largest item of expenditure in the last six months of the ECSC’s existence will, according to a proposal by the Commission, be in respect of social aid. Of that, most is intended to be spent on special adjustment aid in countries where production in the coal and steel industries has been wound down. In many countries the industry has social problems associated with it, and, consequently, the Committee on Budgets has decided to propose that EUR 16 million more than the Commission originally recommended should be paid in adjustment aid to Great Britain, Ireland and Belgium with regard to the special problems associated with their steel industries. When the ECSC ceases to exist, social aid for employees in the coal and steel industries will end. The Commission has not promised to distribute special aid out of the EU’s general budget for social purposes in these industries. When the ECSC ceases to exist, the social dimension it represents will not continue in another form.
The ECSC’s resources have been used to finance important research. Although earnings from the ECSC research fund will be channelled exclusively into research after it ceases to exist, there will be less money available than there is now. For example, early next year EUR 72 million will still be channelled into research. That is a considerable sum compared with the EUR 45 million that represents the earnings from the ECSC’s net assets that will be used for research. Consequently, we could say that the fact that the European Coal and Steel Community is coming to an end makes for a negative situation from the point of view of social action and research.
The Commission is charging quite a sum in compensation for earnings from ECSC funds under the guise of managing the investment of the ECSC assets and allocating money for research: EUR 3.5 million a year. That will pay the salaries of more than 30 officials employed to manage the ECSC’s remaining functions. The activities involved are so limited in scope that the officials seem to form just one group, which will not suffer from the ECSC’s cessation of operations the way the workers and researchers in the coal and steel industries will. The Treaty’s cessation will have surprisingly little effect on the lives of the officials who have been attending to the ECSC’s banking business and are managing its effects. This brings to light the inefficiency of the new organisation of the Commission’s functions.
There is a problem I wish to draw attention to, although it is not strictly relevant to this report. The legal basis for the Coal and Steel Community Research Fund was established by the Treaty of Nice. If the Treaty of Nice is not in force next July, there will be no legal basis for any subsequent management of the estate. The Commission must adopt a position on this swiftly.
Finally, there is good reason to say a few positive words in memory of everything the ECSC has achieved, not least the fact that the European Coal and Steel Community has probably been one of the institutions that had an impact on building peace and international co-operation in Europe after the Second World War. While it was in operation its Member States did not wage war on each other."@en1
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